Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to frequency control, and more particularly, to clock swallowing.
Background
There are many applications in which it is desirable to control the frequency of a clock signal input to a circuit (e.g., central processing unit (CPU)). For example, the frequency of the clock signal may be adjusted by a temperature control system to prevent the temperature of a chip from becoming too high. In this example, the temperature control system may monitor the temperature of the chip using one or more temperature sensors, and reduce (throttle back) the clock frequency when the temperature exceeds a threshold. The reduction in the clock frequency reduces the dynamic power consumption of the circuit, which, in turn, reduces the temperature. In another example, the circuit may be a memory interface that supports multiple data rates. In this example, the clock frequency may be adjusted to change the data rate.